Intensify preparedness levels

Considering that it is barely three weeks since the first case of Severely Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was reported in Hong Kong and that though only one suspect case has been reported in India at the time of writing this report, the preparative steps taken by the various state governments is really commendable. Though they were a little slow to begin with and that’s understandable, the health authorities have taken some proactive measures by setting up surveillance centers and identifying isolation centers within each states. The Central government too has played its role so far in activating national laboratories and sanctioning budgets to work on identification of the specific microorganism and to work out molecular and serological diagnostic techniques. Despite premier international research organisations involved in the identification of the specific SARS microorganism, no conclusive results have come forth. The Centre for Disease Control in the US and other major laboratories identified it as a new variant of Corona virus because of the crown like appearance under the microscope. But reports quoting Chinese officials say it could be a Chlamydial disease. Until the time the exact microorganism is identified, India should exhaust all preventive and curative measures, if an outbreak has to be prevented. So, health authorities should also consider the inclusion of doxycycline and tetracycline as therapeutic interventions besides macrolides and ribavarin, since these two cyclines are found to be effective in Chlamydial disease.

There cannot be a dispute on the fact that SARS is bound to enter India. Presently, the preparedness levels vary across states. The need is to intensify the preparedness levels and to have a uniform control measure across all states. Also, there is an urgent need for speedy and prompt interaction among health authorities between the states. The Centre should seriously consider setting up a nodal cell and this could probably be ICMR. It would be foolish to focus attention only on metropolitan cities and overlook other cities. For instance, there are more people travelling to Canada from Jalandhar than from the rest of India. Lastly, at no point of time till the threat of SARS is globally eliminated, should health authorities relax. Despite the scare, the SARS mortality rate is not more than 4-5 per cent. This might be low for many countries, but in India, it means 40 million people. Even though India is just beginning to get the flavour of SARS, low mortality rates should not lead to underplaying the seriousness of the problem.

ananth_iyer@mailcity.com